The Henry W. Maier Festival Park, also known either as the Henry Maier Festival Grounds or as the Summerfest Grounds, is a festival park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The Park is named for Henry Maier, Milwaukee's longest-serving mayor.

The history of the Henry Maier Festival Park starts with Summerfest

Summerfest

Summerfest is a yearly music festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The festival lasts for 11 days, is made up of 11 stages with performances from over 700 bands, and since the mid-1970s has run from late June through early July, usually...

 in 1968. The music festival was created that year, and found some success, being held in 35 different locations. The next year, however, was inundated with horrific weather, forcing cancellation of the last day and ensuring financial losses for that year. In 1970 a central location was decided upon: an abandoned strip of land along the lakefront in the downtown area, which was the former Maitland Airport and served as a Nike missile site during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

.

The early Summerfest Grounds consisted of little more than concrete blocks with wooden slabs placed on top to serve as stages, in the middle of a grassy, muddy field. Despite this, the central location was key to the festival's success, ensuring the existence and expansion of the grounds. Construction continued through the 1970s and 1980s, with the highlight of the creation of the Marcus Amphitheater

Marcus Amphitheater

The Marcus Amphitheater is an amphitheater on the south end of the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The amphitheater was built after an extremely overcrowded concert in 1984 to carry crowds of 25,000 fans during concerts...

, a 23,000 seat partially covered venue, in 1987.

Festivals

Various ethnic and cultural festivals came to be held at the festival park beginning in the 1980s, as well as several run/walks for charity events.

• African World Festival http://www.africanworldfestival.com/
• Arab World Fest http://www.arabworldfest.com/
• Asian Moon Festival http://www.asianmoonfestival.com/
• Festa Italiana
  Festa Italiana
  Festa Italiana is an ethnic festival held annually at the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest Italian-American festival in America and features Italian music, food and entertainment...
  
  
• German Fest
  German Fest
  German Fest is an ethnic festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Henry Maier Festival Park, on the Lake Michigan lakefront. The genesis of German Fest occurred when Mayor Henry Maier challenged the local German-American community during a speech on May 20th, 1980, at the 20th Anniversary of the...
  
  
• Indian Summer http://www.indiansummer.org/
• Irish Fest
  Milwaukee Irish Fest
  Milwaukee Irish Fest is a yearly ethnic festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park, on the Lake Michigan, USA, every third weekend in August. More than 130,000 people attend the Fest each year to take in nearly 250 acts on 17 stages. The four-day festival in downtown Milwaukee started in 1981...
  
  
• Labor Fest
• Mexican Fiesta http://www.mexicanfiesta.org/
• Polish Fest
  Polish Fest
  Polish Fest is an annual ethnic festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One of the largest Polish festivals in the United States, it attracts Polish Americans from all over Wisconsin and nearby Chicago, who come to celebrate Polish culture through music, food and...
  
  
• PrideFest
  PrideFest (Milwaukee)
  PrideFest is an annual gay pride event held on the Henry Maier Festival Park grounds in Milwaukee on the second weekend of June. PrideFest celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007, which was also a record-breaking attendance year with 27,467 tickets sold over three days.In 2010 Pridefest featured...
  
  

Sources

• History of Summerfest (including the grounds)
• Maitland Airport & Military Reservation details and images